Childhood trauma constitutes any adversity or an extremely stressful event that a child had to go through. Having undergone physical or sexual abuse, parental divorce, car accident, severe natural disasters (like floods, earthquake), having a bully in school or neighborhood are all examples of situations where a child experiences trauma and stress. Though the effects of trauma might not be visible in the immediate time, these traumas ultimately affect the child in the long term. Some of the long term effects of childhood trauma are summarised here below.
Physical and Medical Issues:
Experiencing an adversity or an extremely stressful event in childhood significantly impair the development of brain and immune system. It is well-known that chronic stress can cause physical symptoms like headache, acne, or even slow down the functioning of the nervous system. Children with childhood trauma are more prone to headaches, stomach aches, and chronic illnesses.
The results of a longitudinal study, Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) study found that a positive correlation between childhood adversities and chronic illnesses like heart conditions, cancer and even early death.
Psychological and Emotional Impact:
A lot of adults who have experienced childhood trauma in their life, experience from anxiety, depression, anger, avoidance etc. These children sometimes have flashbacks of trauma, which brings back all the bad memories and can often manifest into ‘PTSD’ (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). A study found that around 3-6% of boys and 10-15% of girls tend to develop PTSD after a traumatic experience in childhood.
Also, children having undergone adversity or some sort of abuse, have difficult time expressing and managing their emotions and feelings to others. They also have problem in dealing and accepting their emotional responses. They may react explosively or over react in certain situations. They might also have low self-esteem and self-worth.
Negative Thinking and Cognitive Distortions:
Many children who have undergone childhood trauma develop negative thinking about themselves, their future and about the world, what is also known as the ‘negative triad’. Williams et al (2010) found that people having history of childhood trauma tend to have more negative automatic thoughts (these are subconscious thoughts that are negative in nature, basically negative self-talk).
Moreover, childhood trauma leads to have a lot of cognitive difficulties in later life like less attention span, difficulty concentrating, or even learning difficulties because of that.
Attachment Style and Relationships:
A child’s relationship with a primary caregiver is very essential as it affects their view of world, the attachment style and has tremendous effect on the type of relationship they’ll have in future with others. Many prominent psychologists and theorists have proved it time and again, be it John Bowbly or Sigmund Freud or Erickson. Erickson’s Psychosocial theory states that if a child isn’t provided with a warm and supportive environment during the childhood years, he/she may develop a mistrustful and a negative view of the world.
Bowbly’s Attachment Theory, has proved that children who have experienced childhood trauma develop insecure attachment styles i.e. they are either too anxious about developing relationships or are extremely clingy or some may be totally disinterested in forming relationships.
These were some of the many effects of childhood trauma. If you are interested to know more about effects of Childhood trauma, I would recommend you to read ‘The Body keeps the score’ by Bessel Van Der Kolk, this book provides very in depth insights regarding how the trauma affects the mind, body and brain.
It is important to be mindful of these things, so that we can help those in need of Psychological help or counseling. If you know someone struggling with it, be with them, reach out to them, recommend a therapist or counselor. Also, in case you are struggling with the after-effects of Childhood trauma, know that you are not alone in this and please don’t hesitate to ask for help and try to open up about these things in front of your social support system.
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